Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister has given us yet another reason to fear a Conservative majority, as though we needed another one. He has said, “there are times where capital punishment is appropriate”. In the same breath, he also said he did not wish to reopen the debate.
Need I remind the House that he said the same thing about abortion? Yet the Prime Minister did nothing to stop his backbenchers from introducing bills to reopen that debate, which was considered closed.
Even more worrisome, he did not hesitate to support those bills. We can only assume that he would do the same for the issue of the death penalty and that these kinds of bills would pass if the Conservatives were to form a majority government.
Instead of sending mixed messages and leaving room for ambiguity, the Prime Minister should accept the fact that the death penalty is a thing of the past and that it has no place in a democratic society.